Hi everyone! This post is part of this month's edition of a wonderful new project I'm participating in along with some of my fellow OFFSET artists: The Storytellers Blog Circle. All members of this circle are incredibly talented visual storytellers and are very passionate about their work. In our blog circle posts each of us gives you behind–the–scenes info on one of our photographs with the goal of teaching and inspiring our audiences. At the end of our posts we each link to the next member in the circle so you can follow along!

So here we go. For this month I've chosen a photo of mulled apple juice that I took a few weeks ago.

I am not a documentary photographer in the sense that I almost never document existing food scenes, instead I create each scene in my studio from the ground up. For this photo I wanted an almost monochromatic color palette and very subdued light to create a quiet, peaceful and reflective, late fall atmosphere.

I started with a small wooden crate that I turned upside down and set on a black table. The set is backlit (with my trusty strobe) and I controlled the light with lots and lots of flags to create a dark and almost gloomy look and feel. The linen bag acts as a "tray" for the drink and symbolically elevates it from the wood surface. In my mind the bag also fit well into the story because it could have been the bag in which the apples had been brought home.

To tell the viewer that the drink they see here is apple juice I added fresh apples to the scene and to make it look as if I had just cut the apples I dunked the knife blade in a jar of lemon juice – definitely a minor but in my view still important and very noticeable detail.

A few freshly picked fall leaves added to the fall atmosphere and also helped keep the surface from looking too naked. I rearranged the leaves and apples a few times until I felt that there was a smooth and natural flow in this scene that helped guide the eye into the frame.

Lastly, I dropped the cinnamon stick in the glass to tell the viewer that this is a spiced drink and – equally importantly – to give me something to focus my lens on.

Photography: I am a professional food photographer in the greater Denver area and focus mostly on stock photography for both commercial and editorial use as well as on assignment work. My photography has won international awards and has been licensed and published around the world.

Styling: Creating a story around the food I photograph is one of my favorite aspects of food photography and because of that I style all my work myself. I specialize in creating a rustic, cottage farmhouse atmosphere in my food photos that transports viewers to an idyllic, tranquil and inviting place that makes them feel warm, welcome and at peace.

Photo Licensing: All images you see on this site are available for licensing. Clicking the licensing button underneath any of my photos will pull up a brief form for you to fill out and submit to me. I respond to every licensing request within one business day.

Recipes: Occasionally I create the recipe I use for a photo myself and when I do, I post it here along with the photograph/s. You can find more of my recipes on my other site, The Spice Train.

If you have any questions at all, just e-mail me at nic.branan@gmail.com.